A program designed to spread the seed of fighting climate change at the citizen level is slowly seeping outside municipal borders.
On his small street in the North Jubilee neighbourhood of Victoria, Glenn Milbury noticed two houses sporting solar panels. While he lives in a strata too complicated to install something similar, it spurred the lifelong advocate for the environment to look deeper into what could be done.
He found the South Jubilee Coolkit group.
For two consecutive springs, Oak Bay hosted sessions introducing ways to engage all ages with a focus on actively impacting climate change. The workshops create individual and group “climate champions.”
Now, pockets of climate champions dot the local landscape as a result of the Oak Bay joint initiative with the UBC forestry program started in spring 2022. The Coolkit program aims to engage community members of all ages with a focus on impacting climate change in an active way.
READ ALSO: Online tool challenges Oak Bay residents to become climate champions
“People feel overwhelmed with what they read in the news about climate change,” said Chris Hyde-Lay, Oak Bay parks manager. The program chops things down to investigate small, often enjoyable and impactful things people can do. “If everybody did that it would make a huge difference.”
The key difference Oak Bay seeks is to hit its 40 per cent tree canopy by 2045. The district sits at 33 per cent now.
Oak Bay and the South Jubilee Coolkit offer a free joint presentation on reducing energy use in the home and driving at Windsor Park Pavilion on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m.
Speakers include Glenn Gary of the Victoria EV Association, Dave Wharf of Eco Car Share, Christy Love RDH Building Science Inc. and Kyrle Symons of Netzero Solar.
